SEATTLE, WA - MARCH 27: Mike McGinn, Mayor of Seattle, addresses 15,000 students at the first ever We Day in the U.S. on March 27, 2013, at KeyArena at Seattle Center. (Photo by Dana Nalbandian/Getty Images for Free The Children)

Seattle's mayoral hopefuls this year have been stumbling over each other as they try to appeal to the city's left-leaning voters, making promises that would be liabilities in many other parts of the country. (Photo by Dana Nalbandian/Getty Images for Free The Children)

SEATTLE (AP) — One of the candidates was the architect of Washington’s gay marriage law. The other is a former activist known for riding his bike to work. Both unabashedly support substantial new taxes, a $15 minimum wage and legal marijuana.

Seattle’s mayoral hopefuls this year have been stumbling over each other as they try to appeal to the city’s left-leaning voters, making promises that would be liabilities in many other parts of the country.

The two Democratic candidates — Mayor Mike McGinn and challenger Ed Murray — have escalated that strategy with a series of new policy proposals since emerging from the August primary.